File cleaner



A. a. GERHAN March 6, 1951 FILE CLEANER Filed May 9, 1944 FIE- BINVENTOR.

A B- GER HAN w m m T A Masonite Patented Mar. 6, 1 951 UNITED STATESPATENT OFFICE FILE CLEANER Arnold B. Gerhan, San Francisco, Calif.

Application May 9, 1944, Serial No. 534,779

' 1 Claim.

This invention relates to cleaners and scrapers, and more especially toa file cleaner for removing filings and dirt after the operation ofusing an ordinary file.

An object of the invention is to provide a file cleaner made from amaterial into which the file being cleaned will cut teeth to permit thecleaner thereafter to reach the bottom of the file teeth to efiectivelyclean out everything thereat.

Another object is to provide a file cleaner which is readily gripped bythe operator without fatigue, which is inexpensive to make, which willclean itself during use. and which will have a comparatively long life.3

All these and other objects, as suggested herebelow, are attained by themethod and means now to be described, and illustrated in theaccompanying drawing, in which- Figure l is a side elevational view of apreferred form of the invention, after use for the purpose intended.

And Fig, 2 is an edge or end elevational view of the same.

Like numerals refer to like parts throughout the several views;

The filer cleaner is made of a processed or non-natural material of ahomogeneous character, capable of being rather readily cut itself by theteeth of the file to be cleaned, during the early part of the cleaningoperation. The material, for instance, may be a non-metallic cotton andcellulose processed material, such as that known as vulcanized fibre. Orit may be a processed wood fibre, such as that known as The character ofsuch material is that it will be readily", and uniformly cutby the fileteeth to quickly form cleaning teeth ;.of its own, filling the fileteeth spaces, and the filings and/or dirt will be both pushed out andadhesively carried out by. the nature and file-formed shape of thismaterial,"which is co-operatively unlike that of the file *fs'teel. Atthe same time, during the cleaningioperation, the file-contactingportion of the cleaner material will itself be filed ofi, to thus notonly self-clean it, but also to provide filed material which will clingto and so more effectively carry off the steel filings and dirt frombetween the file teeth.

Such material is soft enough to be promptly formed to cleaning shape bythe file teeth, dense and non-crumbly enough to retain sharp-cut pointsto reach to the lowermost portions of the file-teeth spaces for completecleaning thereof, of uniform consistency and without grain or variabletexture so that its cleaning action will be uniform, hard enough sothatit can be used over a sufiicient time period to be practical in use, andwith a somewhat adhesive quality when associated with filings of steel,etc., so as to more thoroughly free the file teeth of its unwantedaccumulations. All this, in addition to its vaiuable self-cleaningfunction through the action of being filed away itself, along with itsadhering material. l

The article itself may preferably be of the shape shown in the drawing,Fig. 1, having a somewhat semi-circular upper end la, a reduced orfinger-gripping portion lb, and an expandingside portion ending in astraight laterally-extending edge lc, which is here shown after use,with the cleaning teeth Id formed therein by the action of the file.

A hole 2, centrally disposed in the upper handle portion, is shown cutthrough the sheet material forming the article, which may be used bothfor the purpose of suspending the cleaner on a hook or nail, and as acircular cleaning edge for cleaning small round files, such as rattails.

The pattern or shape of the article, and its aperture, is stamped,-sewn, or otherwise cut from sheet material as above; And since the edgeof its handle portion contains both convex and concave van-dimensionalcurves of the same cleaning material, it too canbe used for cleaning theteeth of files having} like, or near-like, curved surfaces, such ashalf-rounds.

Thus, in the one simple article is a composite cleaning edge ideallyadapted for a universality of commonly-found conditions; and suchmultiple use of the handle portion as well results in a serrated handleedge gwhich only makes more effective the gripping 'efliciency of thearticle in use, for still better cleaning results in less time.

Having now described the invention, what is claimed as new, and forwhich Letters Patent of the United States is desired, is:

A file cleaner for metal files, comprising a rigid fiat sheet ofnon-metallic non-malleable pro- 3 cessed fibrous material, having itface surfaces of substantially greater width than the thickness of itsedge surfaces, and having a file-cuttable cleaning edge of substantiallygreater length than thickness, said cleaning edge being structurallycapable of having spaced fibrous portions entirely removed by the fileteeth to leave fibrous cleaning portions between the file teeth, saidremoved portions being inherently capable of intermingling with andadhering to metal filings pushed from between the file teeth as saidcleaning edge is cut by the file teeth.

A. B. GERHAN.

REFERENCES crrizn irhe following references are of record in the fileoilthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATEN I'S Number Name Date I 729,624 Mason 1. June 2, 19031,211,098 Darrin Jan. 2, 1917 1,576,095 Daly Mar. 9, 1926 898,690Schacht Feb. 21, 1933 2,013,545 Stevens Sept. 3, 1935 2,015,603 MarisSept. 24, 1935 2,294,096 Rice Aug. 25, 1942

